Lessons from a New York yogi

“There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.”  Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

At the end of 2018 I was meeting with our CEO at work. As we talked about measuring the impact we had on lives through the work I lead, I closed my eyes, held up my hands in a meditative way and said “when it comes to impacting lives and engaging our clients, the journey is the destination”. Then, I opened one eye with my hands still in the air to see how much he hated what I said. To my surprise he smiled and didn’t disagree, which only fanned my flame.

Just take the first step…

More times than I can count over the last few weeks, I’ve had conversations with friends who are at a crossroads in their life and considering taking a new path. The level of anxiety and time spent trying to anticipate what will happen as they explore the unknown is considerable. Fear and aprehension is at an all-time high, but so, too, is the excitement about what lies ahead. And so there they stand, teetering the fine line of taking the first step and backing away from the path, retreating into the familiar. 

As I observe this process in them, I can see so much of myself in their journey causing me to think back to all of those times I told myself I couldn’t, without even trying. Or that I’m not the kind of person who… because I held certain beliefs about myself.

The journey is the destination…

This week, I traveled to New York for work and took a MAS moment to visit a local yoga studio (and see my first Broadway show!). Standing in the studio, there was something powerful about finding peace in the middle of a chaotic city.

The class theme centered on how we, in this busy world, measure success by our level of productivity or the outcome, paying little attention to the journey and the feelings along the way. This message resonated with me, as, by nature I am a driven, goal oriented gal who has probably missed many of life’s lessons and special moments as I barreled down the road toward my destination.

My energetic yoga instructor wove this theme throughout the practice urging the class to pay close attention to their feelings emotionally and physically as the practice unfolded. Not pushing their bodies to perform how each person thought they should, rather, to do what felt good and right in the moment. Soon, I was fully immersed in this concept, I found myself pretzeled into a shape I didn’t even know my body was capable of forming. At that very moment, at the crescendo of his message and the practice, he said “I want you to pause, breathe, and reflect, because this shit is deep”.

At that point is struck me – I could have never have found my way to that crazy position if I did not let go and trust the process, if I did not fully immerse myself in each step of the practice along the way. By trusting, letting go and getting out of my own head, I was able to achieve something I never could have imagined for myself. New Yorker yogi was right, that shit was DEEP!

And so, as life these days has a way of doing, my experience in the MAS activity loops back to the conversations I am having with the people I love, and with myself. So often, it seems, the most important thing is to take the first (or next) step and fully immerse yourself in the process. You just never know where you will end up… and, I’m pretty sure that’s the beauty of it all!